Hill House

Believed to have only changed owners three times in 110 years, we felt honored to be entrusted with the responsibility to restore and refresh this iconic house for the next generation.

This handsome home was originally owned and built by a prominent lumber family in 1903, during Seattle's Klondike Gold fed boom years. This grand beauty is layered with beautifully crafted wood trim milled by the original owner’s company. Believed to have only changed owners three times in 110 years, we felt honored to be entrusted with the responsibility to restore and refresh this iconic house for the next generation. Once a timeless classic, and a relic of a bygone era, it came to us in relatively good condition but reflective of the times; full of “service spaces” needing to be reinvented for modern life. An entirely new open family-centric kitchen was created from three former rooms. A new mudroom and a breakfast conservatory were added, and the former living room was repurposed into a grand dining room.

The active family program included an ambitious media room cum Sports Bar, but demanded the design be without pretense and definitely comfort driven. The result literally excavated from a dank unfinished basement, it recollects a Speakeasy of times past, but infused with modern technology and spirit. Wonderfully enhanced by the owners’ collection of sports memorabilia, not merely purchased, but earned by attending a lifetime of memorable events; rich stories accompanying them all.

A truly impassioned collaboration on this project; the client brought to bear her background in fashion, photography, and a love for all things design. We like to tell ourselves we helped launch her design career, but we think she already knew what she was doing! We retain her stacks of 500 “good ideas” we didn’t use on this house, in the hopes that we have the chance to collaborate again on another design adventure.